Aizkraukle Municipality
The Baltic's largest hydroelectric plant (894 MW) drowned Staburags cliff and Koknese Castle. The town was born in 1967 from builders' housing.
Aizkraukle exists because of a drowned gorge. The Pļaviņas Hydroelectric Power Station—largest in the Baltics at 894 MW—was built here between 1961 and 1968. The town itself was born in 1967 when builders' housing achieved town status.
The cost was cultural: Staburags, a limestone cliff of immense significance to Latvians, now lies beneath the reservoir. So does Koknese Castle. In 1958, protests against the flooding delayed construction for five years—an unusual show of public resistance in Soviet Latvia. The Latvian Communist Party's relatively liberal leadership was purged in 1959, replaced by Moscow-oriented conservatives. Construction resumed.
Rescue archaeology recovered 2,500+ artifacts and 30,000 pottery sherds. Over 1,100 pages of reports documented what would be lost. Today the only road tunnel in Latvia runs beneath the dam, connecting the Daugava's banks. Six turbines were added between 1991 and 2001. The plant generates roughly 40% of Latvia's hydroelectric output.
Aizkraukle demonstrates how infrastructure creates geography. Before 1961, this location had no special significance. The dam created the town, the reservoir, the tunnel—an entirely artificial landscape that now reads as permanent.